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Drugs abuse among the youth of today
Drugs abuse among the youth of today
“The Effects of Drugs and Alcohol on College Students,”
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Greek members and Athlete students are involved with drugs and alcohol more than college students that are not part of Greek life or athletes. As of the peer pressure and the exposure exhibited in their surroundings does have an impact on their use of drugs and alcohol.
For most students, they like to go to college to gain new opportunities to experience college life and to experiment with different things. The United States has over 7,000 higher education institutions and over 15 million students (Brain Track, 2013). Drug and alcohol use is not new to the college life. Experimenting with drugs and alcohol comes with consequences. Alcohol and drug violations simply mean that the students do not abide by the policies implemented by the colleges. Approximately 110,000 college students were arrested for alcohol-related violations such as public drunkenness or driving under the influence (College Drinking, 2013). Gallaudet University has 276 drug violations and 5 arrests while the alcohol violations were 213 with 0 arrests. Greek organizations and athletes are more likely to drink and do drugs more often.
Literature Review
There are various factors that have an effect on drug use: parenting styles, availability of drugs, emotional reasons, athletic involvement, and the Greek system (Brousseau & Baron, 2008). College students use drugs (including alcohol) for different reasons. A study was done on students at Seattle University to determine drug exposures. There were a total of 218 students that participated in the study with a survey of 21 questions. In the survey, it asked if the students has ever drink or do drugs at Seattle University at different time points and one of the final question was if the students knew and other stud...
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...au, K., & Baron, M. (2008). Drug use exposure among seattle university students. Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, 13(3), 119-127.
Pedrelli, P., Bitran, S., Shyu, I., Baer, L., Guidi, J., Tucker, D., Vitali, M., Zisook, S., Farabaugh, A., & Fava, M. (2010). Compulsive alcohol use and other high-risk behaviors among college students. The American Journal on Addictions,
Turrisi, R., Mallett, K., & Mastroleo, N. (2006). Heavy drinking in college students: Who is at risk and what is being done about it?. The Journal of General Psychology,
National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, (2013). College drinking: A snapshot of annual high-risk college drinking consequences. Retrieved from website: http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/StatsSummaries/snapshot.aspx
Us colleges and universities. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.braintrack.com/us-colleges
Getting Serious About Eradicating Binge Drinking is an informative article by Henry Wechsler. Wechsler has worked with the College Alcohol study since its creation in 1992, and he also lectures at the School of Public Health at Harvard. In his article, Weschler discusses the prominent trend of binge drinking on college campuses and how to solve the widespread problem. Binge drinking is a term used to describe the act drinking alcoholic beverages with the intention of becoming intoxicated over a short period of time.
“80 percent of teen-agers have tried alcohol, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in the top three causes of death among teens: accidents, homicide and suicide” (Underage, CNN.com pg 3). Students may use drinking as a form of socializing, but is it really as good as it seems? The tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of “culture” fixed in every level of the college student environment. Customs handed down through generations of college drinkers reinforce students' expectation that alcohol is a necessary ingredient for social success. These perceptions of drinking are the going to ruin the lives of the students because it will lead to the development alcoholism. College students who drink a lot, while in a college environment, will damage themselves mentally, physically, and socially later in life, because alcohol adversely affects the brain, the liver, and the drinkers behavior.
College student drunkenness is far from new and neither are college and university efforts to control it. What is new, however, is the potential to make real progress on this age-old problem based on scientific research results. New research-based information about the consequences of high-risk college drinking and how to reduce it can empower colleges and universities, communities, and other interested organizations to take effective action. Hazardous drinking among college students is a widespread problem that occurs on campuses of all sizes and geographic locations. A recent survey of college students conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health reported that 44 percent of respondents had drunk more than five drinks (four for women) consecutively in the previous two weeks. About 23 percent had had three or more such episodes during that time. The causes of this problem are the fact that students are living by themselves no longer with parents or guardians; they earn their own money; students need to be a part of a group, be accepted; and they have the wrong idea that to feel drunk is “cool.”
Kremer and Levy (2008) analyze to what degree college students who consume alcohol influence their peers. College students could affect their peers’ alcohol consumption, which in turn may lead to damaging effects. For example, peers could potentially disrupt classrooms, be exposed to disease, and lower their grade point average, start binge drinking, abuse illegal drugs, and even die. These affects may generate multiplier effects in the future.
Lily, Henrietta M. and Harmon, Daniel E. Alcohol Abuse and Binge Drinking. New York: the Rosen Publishing Group Inc., 2012. Print.
Why do college students drink so much? This timeless fad has effected this generation in high percentages since the beginning of college education. Today in America it is estimated that approximately 29% of college students are regular alcohol abusers. Another recent study by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism performed showed that college students suffered 1,400 deaths, 70,000 date rapes and assaults, and 500,000 injuries each year as a result of alcohol. (McDonald) Although binge drinking (5+ drinks in one sitting) is considered a normal part of the college experience many factors contribute to whether or not an individual is more prone to be an abuser.
The drug is a big problem at many colleges today, and is getting worse by time. There are more and more drugs circling in college atmospheres, where many students aren’t aware. If people learn what is happening around them, and watch out for each other, the problem should be able to be contained.
Not only in the US, Many countries around the world have the same problem in college campuses. Like many European countries, college drinking has been developed into kind of traditional culture in the US and she has been facing the change of the culture of drinking at colleges. However, other than the damage and injuries that happen during semester break each year, the only consequences of college drinking that usually come to the public's attention are occasional student deaths from alcohol overuse, such as alcohol poisoning or other alcohol-related tragedies. (Ramaley) In fact, the consequences of college drinking are much more than occasional and normal. According to the studies, 1,825 college students who aged from 18 to24 died from alcohol-related inadvertent injuries, including car crashes, while 599,000 students are unintentionally hurt over the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2009). College drinking also results in serious injuries, assaults, sexual abuse and other health and academic problems. The impacts of excessive college drinking are more widespread and destructive than most people realize. Therefore, this essay will first consider the pr...
Using fear, while not aggressively, Silveri highlights the fact that excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading leading cause of preventable death. The author discusses this topic in a way that seems to be to scare anybody she is trying to convince. A mother reading this could worry about her daughter, or a young man in college who drinks often could take his drinking habits far more seriously after reading something like that. Also, ending the article on an optimistic note, she allows the reader to have some hope. Silveri mentions the reduction of maladaptive alcohol use through better recognition of the negative tendencies that comes with alcohol abuse in adolescents. (Adolescent Brain Development and Underage Drinking in the United States: Identifying Risks of Alcohol Use in College
Alcohol use has been an important part of the American college experience since the eighteen century. The early form of drunken college kids with a lifestyle known as “the collegiate subculture”. In the 17000s when “the sons of the rich came to college for four years of pleasure and social contacts. They considered academic work an intrusipon on their fun and they were content to pass their courses with a ‘gentleman’s C’ grade. The collegiate subculture is antieducational with students associated with party scenes, taking precedence over academic endeavors.” Modern college drinking is not limited to power elite, usual universities partiers are from the wealthy. Students use alcohol to demonstrate their privilege status. College for them is not the only pathway to success. They are already success through family wealthy backgrounds. Alcohol consumption is a way to let everyone know about their status and that they had already “made it”.
One of the main reasons students feel the need to binge drink is peer pressure. They do this because their peers are doing it and they want to fit in better. College dorm rooms offer many different places for students to drink. Dorm rooms give a great place for a few people to get together, and before you know it “everybody’s doing it”.
Weshler, Henry, and Wuethrich, Bernice. Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on college campuses. Chicago: Rodale Inc., 2002. Print.
One of the biggest problems with educational institutions in the United States is alcohol abuse among college students. College students across the United States including Georgia Southern University end up missing class, having unprotected sex, damaging property, and getting injured as a result of abusing alcohol. Also the health risks involved with binge or excessive drinking is very prevalent and risky for any college student who chooses to abuse alcohol. Besides alcohol poisoning, there are many cancers and diseases associated with alcohol abuse that ultimately lead to death. Liver cancer, breast cancer, and skin cancer can all be associated with alcohol abuse (Drinking: A Students Guide, 2001). Also heart and liver disease can be associated with alcohol abuse (Drinking: A Students Guide, 2001). Ultimately the over all wellness among Colleges and Universities in the United States drops dramatically when alcohol is abused. The abuse of alcohol among college students has a direct co...
According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, more than 1,800 college students die from alcohol-related causes every year, while about 800,000 are being assaulted by other students because of drinking. About one in every four college students who binge drink also admit that they have experienced academic problems. Binge drinking is drinking multiple drinks in just a few hours to get drunk. Despite the fact that college drinking has caused many issues, it has not been stopped, yet. In article, “Why Colleges Haven’t Stopped Binge Drinking,” McMurtrie (2014) explains that this issue has not been resolved yet because many people still see alcohol abuse as general issue instead of seeing it an individual behavior. Because colleges
There are a myriad of cultural and societal risk factors that contribute adolescent alcohol and drug use. A risk factor is defined as “any attribute, characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or injury”. These risk factors can be identified through family history of substance use disorder, sense of inferiority, pleasure seeking, low self-esteem, unemployment, poor social support, desire to experiment and poor social support (Thomas, N. L., Naregal, P. M., Mohite, V. R., Tata, S. H., Karale, R. B., & Kakade, S. V. (2015).) Risk of drug abuse increases greatly during times of transition, such as changing schools, moving, or divorce. Additional peer risk factors include gang involvement or the reinforcement of negative norms and expectations within peer group, the lack of academic...